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Jan 1, 1300
First Climbers
The Anasazis in the southwest United States drilled holes for posts and carved steps up the steep rock cliffs in Chaco Canyon. There are cliff dwellings scattered throughout the southwest. Given the difficult approaches to some of these cliff dwellings it seems reasonable to assume that the natives had the skills necessary to ascend what would now be considered technical climbing terrain. -
Jan 1, 1492
First recorded rock ascent
1492 : Antoine de Ville ascends Mont Inaccessible, Mont Aiguille, a 300 meter rock tower south of Grenoble, France. Under orders from his king, he used the techniques developed for sieging castles to attain an otherwise unreachable summit. -
First Ascent of Half Dome
Half Dome in Yosemite National Park is first climbed by George Anderson. He uses eye bolts in drilled holes as hand and toe holds. He uses a fixed rope to return to his high point each day -
The Sport of Rock Climbing Begins
The Sport of Rock Climbing begins in the Lake District and Wales in Great Britain, Saxony near Dresden, and the Dolomites. W. P. Haskett Smith is frequently called the Father of Rock Climbing in the British Isles, and Oskar Schuster was an early climber in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. -
Chalk enters the Scene
John Gill introduces chalk & modern dynamics; first V8 (1957), V9 (1959) ; freesolos FA Thimble overhang (5.12a, though with the shoes of the time and before chalk bags, it was undoubtedly harder) -
First 'Modern' Climbing shoes on the market
Boreal introduces the first "sticky rubber" shoe, the Fire -
The Nose is Climbed (free solo)
Lynn Hill makes the first free climbing ascent of the 3,000 foot Nose Route of El Capitan (~5.13). Although there had been many ascents of The Nose, none had been done entirely without artificial aid. For years this had been the most coveted goal in the world of rock climbing. -
second ascent
Free solo of Astroman and Rostrum in Yosemite Valley -
First free solo of Moonlight Butchess
Alex Honnold Free solo of Zion's Moonlight Buttress -
Frist free solo of Half Dome
Alex Honnold Free solo of the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome
